Mom Adds ER Nurse, Illinois Hospital to Civil Rights Suit

An Illinois hospital and a registered nurse have been added as defendants in a federal lawsuit alleging paramedics refused to take a baby to the emergency room because he is Hispanic.

The delay in care left the boy with permanent brain damage, plaintiff Gloria Lopez says.

Lopez amended her complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to name Sherman Hospital and ER nurse Jenny Lentz.

The original complaint accused the village of Carpentersville and paramedics Diane Graham and Martin Gruber of civil rights violations and medical negligence.

Lopez says they conspired to deny her 4-month-old son Osbiel transportation to the emergency room based on his ethnicity.

Osbiel's babysitter called 911 on Sept. 18, 2006, when the boy was vomiting, having trouble breathing and showing seizure movements.

Graham and Gruber responded to the call, saw Osbiel vomiting and in distress, and left the home 26 minutes later, leaving the baby behind, the suit says.

The paramedics had communicated with Lentz, an emergency communications registered nurse employed by Sherman Hospital, while they were responding to the 911 call, according to the amended complaint.

Lopez says that during those communications, the hospital and Lentz "had medical control" over her son's care yet failed to order the paramedics to transport him to the emergency room for evaluation.

Lentz was further negligent in failing to consult with an emergency department physician about Osbiel's condition while Graham and Gruber were with him, the amended complaint says.

According to the suit, three hours after the original call the babysitter called 911 again when the baby's condition worsened. A different crew of EMTs responded and within minutes took the child to Sherman Hospital.

Doctors found that he was suffering respiratory distress from an infection, which caused a loss of oxygen to his brain. Lopez contends the significant delay in transporting Osbiel to the emergency room caused permanent brain damage.

The boy requires continuous care and is fed primarily through a tube in his stomach.

About 40 percent of Carpentersville's population is Hispanic. The town of 37,000 residents was the subject of a cover story in the New York Times Sunday Magazine in August 2007 focusing on the efforts of some local leaders to prohibit illegal immigrants from obtaining jobs and housing and to require municipal employees to speak only English to all residents.

Lopez is seeking compensatory and punitive damages of $30 million.

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